Champagne is generally associated with feelings of euphoric excess and the special occasions that prompt them -- New Year's Eve celebrations, weddings, birthdays, promotions. Even if you're in the mood to splurge, a large crowd or a tight budget can prompt the pursuit of cheap Champagne. From France to Spain, Italy, and California, there's enough excellent bubbly to go around for $10 or less. The challenge lies in knowing what you're buying. We considered online reviews and ratings from a variety of sources and consulted a wine expert to come up with our top picks.

If you think cheap white wine is only for grandma's spritzer, think again. There's a white wine -- costing no more than $10 to satisfy almost anyone's palate. Inexpensive white wines can complement a range of foods, brighten up a lazy summer afternoon, and make an excellent substitute for pre-dinner cocktails. White wines typically present fruity and/or floral flavors and aromas, sometimes offer a bit of spice and earthiness, and range in sugar content from bone dry to dessert-level sweet. We've made top picks based on tastings, ratings, reviews, and awards, on top of expert advice, and suspect wine drinkers will find at least one selection to suit both their sipping preferences and their budget.

Who needs a premium red wine when a thoroughly respectable bottle costs $10 or less? Frugal quaffers who know even a little bit about wine and aren't afraid to go with what they like will find many such bottles. There are hundreds of cheap red wines out there -- some barely worth the few dollars you'd pay but many worth drinking. With so many styles, grape varieties, producers, and labels to choose among, shopping can be a challenge. To guide wine drinkers through the thicket, we've made top picks based on tastings, ratings, reviews, awards, and expert advice. We've also selected a wide array of other inexpensive red wines fit to serve with a meal, bring to a party, or sip over the course of a quiet evening.

AmazonBasics 12-Sheet Cross-Cut Review

This unit does heavy-duty shredding (CDs included) without overheating. It also comes with a safety feature that triggers an automatic shutdown if a foreign object (like tiny fingers) comes into contact with the blade.

The AmazonBasics 12-Sheet Cross-Cut shredder has garnered more than 2,300 reviews on the ecommerce vendor's site and earns an average four-star rating. Although this model is described as a "medium-duty" shredder, reviews indicate that it handles what passes for heavy-duty shredding by home users without overheating. AmazonBasics 12-Sheet Cross-Cutter reviews say it easily shreds up to 10 sheets and some say it manages the advertised 12 sheets. Paper clips and staples pose no obstacles, either, many users assert.

Quite a few also report they have exceeded the recommended 5-minute continuous run time. One reviewer, for example, claims to have shredded materials for 90 minutes straight, with just one auto shutdown when the machine got too hot. Users really like the efficiency and many report relying on it to shred backlogs of sensitive documents.

Where to buy

AmazonBasics 12-Sheet Cross-Cut reviews at Fat Wallet, are divided, with some extolling its virtues (such as price) and others grumbling about design or reliability issues. As with all inexpensive shredders, reports of malfunctions and total breakdown within days or weeks of purchase appear with some regularity.

This all-purpose shredder can chew paper (up to 600 sheets a day, according to the specs), credit cards, staples and paper clips, as well as CDs and DVDs -- the latter two through a dedicated slot where these media are shredded into four pieces. The primary paper throat is 8.7 inches wide. The shredding mechanism sits atop a 4.8-gallon bin and must be removed to empty the basket. The AmazonBasics 12-Sheet Cross-Cut shredder (starting at $50, Amazon) features SafetyShred, which triggers an automatic shutdown if an object that the machine isn't designed to destroy enters the shredding slot. It can be reversed to clear jams, and comes with a one-year limited warranty.

The combination of features and overwhelmingly positive feedback make the AmazonBasics 12-Sheet shredder a hands-down top pick.

Maralyn Edid

Maralyn is a veteran reporter, writer, researcher, and editor. From her early years at Crain's Chicago Business and the Detroit bureau of Business Week, then on to a long-term stint at Cornell University's ILR School and now at Cheapism.com, Maralyn has been -- and remains -- committed to getting ...